Training Log Entry 39

March 4 - 10, 2024

Monday March 4

Off

Tuesday March 5

This day marked the beginning of my training block for the Survive of the Fittest 18k in early May. My primary goal for this block is to substantially increase my weekly vertical gain, and this day’s hilly easy run was the first step towards that goal.

From the start, my energy level was quite low, making the first few flat kilometers feel sluggish. However, as the grade started to increase, I gradually began to find my rhythm, albeit at a fairly conservative pace.

During the descent, I was bit concerned about some discomfort in my calf, so I didn’t push it too hard and maintained a relaxed pace.

In total, the run covered 9.9km with 205m of elevation gain.

Wednesday March 6

For the first workout of the new training block, I did two reps of Nicole’s ascent, a repeat of the workout I failed to complete a few weeks ago.

In the warm-up, I felt a tad sluggish due to my body not being fully awake. Nevertheless, the first rep started off well, feeling comfortable in the early stages of the ascent.

By three-quarters of the way up, my legs began to fatigue significantly, prompting me to take a break. Eventually, I managed to complete the first rep, albeit while feeling completely drained. Despite this, I pushed on to at least finish the workout, regardless of how much of the second ascent I would need to hike.

The second rep was just as difficult as the first, but thanks to going at a more conservative pace, it felt smoother, allowing me to complete the workout without any issues.

Thinking back on both attempts at this workout, I’ve now realized that this trail is far more demanding than I had originally assumed. Given this, I’ve decided to maintain the current volume for this workout until I can finish it at a more reasonable pace.

Including the warm-up and cool down, the session totaled 12.5km with 474m of elevation gain.

Thursday March 7

After the previous day’s hard workout, my legs had no energy left in them. Thankfully, this day was on a flat route, and staying at a relaxed pace allowed me to ease into it without much issue. As I got into the second half, my legs began to loosen up, allowing me to complete the 9km run relatively comfortable.

Friday March 8

This day’s workout consisted of a fartlek of 5x(4’ on, 2’ float). Given how long it had been since my last fartlek, and the considerable vertical gain I’d done so far this week, my expectations for the workout were quite low.

Much to my surprise, my legs felt incredibly fresh right from the start. My stride was compact and powerful, allowing me to maintain a solid pace with relative ease. The 4-minute reps flew by quickly, while the floats offered more than enough time to fully recover.

Unfortunately, early in the fourth interval, I experienced a breathing issue, forcing me to stop to catch my breath. It ended up being quite severe as I struggled to catch my breath even after resting a few minutes.

Despite my breathing not having fully recovered, I decided to resume the workout. As expected, my legs and breathing felt bad as I started back up. However, surprisingly, my condition began to rebound very quickly. Within a few minutes, my breathing and legs had fully recovered, allowing me to finish the fartlek like the problem never happen.

The 30 minute fartlek covered a distance of 7.18 kilometers, with the following split:

• 4:05/km (4:35/km)
• 4:05/km (4:34/km)
• 4:04/km (4:33/km)
• 3:57/km (4:27/km)
• 3:57/km (4:27/km)

These translate to average paces of 4:01/km and 4:31/km for the ons and floats, respectively.

What’s notable about this workout was that my cadence during the ons averaged 175 steps per minute, an approximately 5-point increase from my typical rate. I attribute the high cadence, along with my improved hip strength from the recent hill sessions, to the success of this workout.

Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume amounted to 13km.

Saturday March 9

I felt pretty good during this recovery run. My left calf and achilles were a bit sore, but I was still able to move well and felt relaxed throughout the run.

Afterward, I did 4x100m hill strides, which did irritate my achilles slightly, so I’ll need to be a bit more careful about it for the time being.

In total, the run and strides added up to 6.5km for the day.

Sunday March 10

This week was another long run up and around Burnaby Mountain, with the goal of accumulating a significant amount of vertical gain. The plan was to cover 500-600m of vert over the course of the run.

From the start, my legs felt heavy, but I wasn’t too concerned since my focus was on getting the volume, rather than maintaining a specific pace.

The first big climb was challenging, and I found myself hiking more frequently than usual, especially in the early stages. However, once the gradient eased off a bit, I began to find my rhythm and maintained a steady pace while keeping my breathing under control.

After reaching the top, I enjoyed a brief flat section before embarking on a steep descent. The downhill didn’t last long, and I soon began the second ascent. Although it was relatively short, this climb was very steep, and because of my heavy legs, I had to hike a significant portion of it.

Following the second climb, I went over some rolling hills before tackling the final descent. I managed to get through this section with relative ease, however, I did experience some discomfort in my left knee during the latter stages of the descent, which caused me to slow down slightly for the remainder of the run.

Overall, the long run covered 19.6km with 571m of elevation gain. This brought the week’s mileage to 70.5m with 1381m of elevation gain.